Oddee online - InKansasCity online article
Sometimes the cops don’t get the bad guy, so they create one.
That’s what Darryl Burton alleged that the St Louis Police Department did in relation to his wrongful conviction and imprisonment for the slaying of a man at a gas station in 1984.
Burton was sentenced to life in prison for the crime, but was exonerated in 2008 when a judge released him, agreeing that evidence suggesting he was an innocent man was kept from the jury during his trial.
After 24 years in prison and two years out, Burton sued the city, its board of police commissioners, and several police officers, alleging that witnesses were coached into accusing him of the crime. He also claimed that police created false reports and hid eyewitness descriptions of the actual murderer, who was killed in 1986. Oddee online report ‘10 of the Worst Wrongful Imprisonment Cases’
Darryl A Burton has a story to tell — one of an incredible miscarriage of justice. Burton spent 24 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit. Burton remembers, ‘When I heard the jurors say guilty, I felt shock and disbelief. I just didn’t think, in America, an innocent man could be sent to prison, especially capital murder,’ explains Burton.
Arriving at the entrance of the penitentiary he would unjustly call home, he saw a sign that read Welcome to the Missouri State Penn. Leave all your hopes, family, and dreams behind.
‘When I saw that banner, it deeply affected me, and I lost all hope. I hated the place, the system, and anyone that had anything to do with it. It was hell on earth — filled with violence, evil, and hate’, Burton says on his website.
Burton remained in prison 24 years from 1984 until 2009 and spent many of those days in the prison law library, dedicated to proving his innocence. He wrote over 600 letters to members of the government, nonprofit organizations, even Oprah Winfrey, to plead his case. In 2000, Centurion, a national nonprofit dedicated to seeking freedom for the innocent in prison, began working on Burton’s case.
After being exonerated in 2008, Burton went back to school for his divinity degree and became an associate pastor at the largest United Methodist Church in the US. He now shares his nightmare story of adversity to help others. And he cofounded Miracle of Innocence, an organization to assist innocent prisoners with referrals for legal representation. They will help with legal resources for case investigation, case development, trial resources, appeals, and prisoner representation — as well as comprehensive care for exonerees. InKansasCity online article 10 June 2020, ‘Wrongly Imprisoned For 24 years, Darryl Burton Now Helps Others Who May Suffer the Same Fate'